Bill To Extend Snow Days Stalls In Ohio House

The Ohio House has held off taking a formal vote on a plan to let schools take up to four additional days off this year because of the season's extreme weather.

At issue is a disagreement over how many days to allow. House Speaker Bill Batchelder says members plan to take an additional week to continue to work on the number of days in the proposal and review its costs.

"We had discussion in the caucus. A lot of people had not heard from their superintendents about this. We do require a certain number of days in school," says Batchelder. "So then the question is when do you make that up? Is this tenable? Will this actually get done what they want to do? We had people all over the line in the caucus."

Snow and frigid temperatures has led many districts across Ohio to exhaust their five allowable calamity days. Some have cancelled classes for 10 or more days.

Gov. John Kasich has been among those advocating adding extra snow days on a one-time basis this year.

Another proposal slated to get a Senate hearing Wednesday would excuse high school seniors from makeup days that fall after their scheduled graduation ceremonies.